British feminists met Saturday in London to debate the “next wave” of the feminist movement, and the shared objectives of the so-called third wave of feminists.
Leading feminist thinkers gathered at the Fabian Society’s conference on feminism to discuss the future of feminism, and the unique challenges that come with the economic downturn. Many fear that their hard-won rights may be eroded as the focus shifts from equal pay to any pay at all. The conference also touched on feminism’s PR problems. Ellie Levenson, author of The Noughtie Girl’s Guide to Feminism said “our brand of feminism is different from what has gone before. However, feminism clearly has an image problem. What we need to get across is that you can be feminine and a feminist.” It seems that “feminist” is still a dirty word to many women, a sad fact that may be especially true in Britain. One of the biggest criticisms of modern feminism that arose from the conference is that the current movement “lacks coherence.” Writer Alice Wolf claims that this is the result of a generational divide: “It is not clear what the feminist agenda now is. Those women who supported Hillary Clinton just because she was a woman are from an older generation. The younger ones did not know what they were on about.”
Meet the women bringing feminism to a new generation [Independent]